At the end of the week in which many schools in England and Wales break up, more UK holidaymakers will be travelling than ever before.
Friday will be the busiest day of the year so far for flights from UK airports: 3,255 departures are scheduled, carrying 556,000 passengers.
Rail travellers face a range of disruptions, from crowded trains to engineering works.
On the roads, the RAC warns: “The ‘end of summer term’ getaway weekend will be classically busy.”
Motorists heading for France via LeShuttle through the Channel Tunnel to Calais will face the biggest crowds on Friday, while the CEO of the Port of Dover has asked motorists not to arrive more than two hours ahead at the UK’s busiest ferry port.
The Independent has conducted in-depth research to identify the key pressure points for travellers.
Air
Most airports are reporting record figures. Friday 25 July is expected to be busiest day of the year at Birmingham; at Luton, it will be Sunday 27 July.
Fridays in late July and August see the biggest crowds at five top airports. At London Gatwick, landings and take-offs will be just 65 seconds apart on key dates.
A four-day strike by ground handlers at Portuguese airports – including Faro, Madeira, Lisbon and Porto – could cause problems for some holidaymakers between Friday and Monday, with further strikes threatened during weekends in August. But easyJet, Ryanair and Tui say their flights will be unaffected. The Independent has asked British Airways and TAP Portugal if their passengers could be hit by the strike.
Air-traffic control (ATC) delays are impacting thousands of flights across Europe each day – to the extent that Ryanair, Europe’s biggest budget airline, has taken to sending emails to affected passengers headlined “ATC delayed your holiday”.
Eurocontrol, the pan-European coordination body, said that over the past week, “network hotspots saw 31 per cent of network delays generated by France [due to] capacity and staffing issues compounded by adverse weather”.
Operations over Germany and Spain were also affected by “weather and some capacity issues”.
Airspace is constrained across Europe by the closure of Ukrainian skies to all passenger aircraft and Russian skies being off limits to most airlines.
In addition, President Trump’s visit to Scotland from 25 to 29 July is likely to cause airspace restrictions at Prestwick and Aberdeen.
Rail
After a week that has seen some extreme delays and cancellations, including at London Waterloo, train operators are hoping that Network Rail infrastructure will cope with the pressure over one of the busiest weekends of the year.
Rail passengers face a combination of crowds, especially to the seaside, and engineering work that will close links including Crewe to Shrewsbury, Nuneaton to Leicester and halt all trains through Huddersfield.
Eurostar is advising all but “Premier” passengers to arrive at London St Pancras International for trains to France, Belgium and the Netherlands 75 minutes ahead of departure.
The cross-Channel train operator says: “To ensure you have enough time for all pre-departure steps, please come to the station at the recommended time and not just before the gates close.” Eurostar Premier passengers can allow just 45 minutes.
Roads
The RAC is warning motorists that “Frantic Friday” on 25 July will see extremely busy motorways until around 7pm, as holidaymakers jostle with regular commuter and commercial traffic.
The motoring organisation says that the worst affected roads on Friday will be the M5 between Bristol and Devon and the M25 around London – particularly the southeast quadrant approaching Dartford Crossing. The best time to travel will be after 7pm.
The highest number of holiday journeys over the weekend are predicted to be on Saturday, with three million motorists on the move.
Congestion is expected to be worst between 10am and 5pm. The M6 northbound through the West Midlands, from the M42 junction near Coventry to the M54 turn-off past Wolverhampton, is expected to be particularly busy, as is the A82 from Glasgow to Loch Lomond.
An additional 2.7 million trips are expected on Sunday 27 July, The optimum time to reach a UK destination is before 11 am. From then onwards many motorways and trunk roads will be busy all day to 7pm, with the worst congestion predicted southbound from Wigan (junction 27) to the Stafford turn-off at junction 13.
Ferry/Eurotunnel
At the Port of Dover, drivers are being urged not to arrive too early for the key getaway ferries to France between 5am and 1pm.
Doug Bannister, chief executive of the UK’s busiest ferry port, told The Independent’s daily travel podcast: “Certainly it’s going to be very busy on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and into Sunday. Those are our peak travel days of the year.”
More than 10,000 cars are expected to pass through the port on both Friday and Saturday. Dover’s CEO said: “Please don’t turn up earlier than two hours before you’re sailing.
“We know the sailings and we know the bookings on the sailings and if they all come through in an even rate then we can get on top of it.”
LeShuttle, carrying cars through the Channel Tunnel, will see its busiest day on Friday 25 July.
A spokesperson for Getlink, which owns the tunnel and runs LeShuttle, said: “We wish to reassure our customers that we’ve closely analysed travel patterns, identified high-demand days, and taken a comprehensive approach to capacity management to help everyone travel with confidence this summer.
“We advise checking in at least one hour before departure, and no more than two hours before, to allow time for border checks and boarding.”
For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcast
